4 ms·

Reminded me of a joke I heard a while ago: "Just released car has amazing safety features that prevent any damage to the vehicle. Amazing advance of technology

Reminded me of a joke I heard a while ago: "Just released car has amazing safety features that prevent any damage to the vehicle. Amazing advance of technology was made available by near instantaneous braking. Even going 100 mph a car can come to a complete stop instantaneously. After that wipers are deployed automatically to wipe off remains of a driver from windshield." Any significant change of momentum will harm humans no matter how tough the car is. Newer cars are actually less rigid to provide a cushion to human drivers in case of such collision. Edit: I meant less rigid in right places. If you observe crash test you could see how neatly car folded around drivers cage. Thanks drglitch for pointing that out.

drglitch 13y ago
Newer cars are more rigid in just the right places (e.g. driver cage) - they do have larger/softer crumple zones that permit the damage to be absorbed along a longer time period. By prolonging the total crumple/crash time, the peak energy is decreased, thereby avoiding injuries from force overload during deceleration.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  Knowing that, one should also be able to conclude this Focus crash test is meaningless. How it performs vs. an immovable wall at 120mph really doesn't tell you much about how it will perform at 65mph vs. a fence, or a tree, or a guard rail. If it didn't crumple at 120mph, then you'd have cause to worry though.
ImprovedSilence 13y ago
Reminds me of the saying: "people like to say that speed kills, but really it's a very sudden lack of speed that kills." I think that might be a Clarksonism...
- bashinator 13y ago
  Also, "No-one ever died from falling. They die from stopping falling."
  - koenigdavidmj 13y ago
    Also, 'nobody ever died on a motorcycle'.
  - seanmcdirmid 13y ago
    Not true: plenty of people have died of a heart attack on the way down before they ever hit the ground.

drglitch 13y ago

Newer cars are more rigid in just the right places (e.g. driver cage) - they do have larger/softer crumple zones that permit the damage to be absorbed along a longer time period. By prolonging the total crumple/crash time, the peak energy is decreased, thereby avoiding injuries from force overload during deceleration.

sliverstorm 13y ago
Knowing that, one should also be able to conclude this Focus crash test is meaningless. How it performs vs. an immovable wall at 120mph really doesn't tell you much about how it will perform at 65mph vs. a fence, or a tree, or a guard rail. If it didn't crumple at 120mph, then you'd have cause to worry though.

ImprovedSilence 13y ago

Reminds me of the saying: "people like to say that speed kills, but really it's a very sudden lack of speed that kills." I think that might be a Clarksonism...

bashinator 13y ago
Also, "No-one ever died from falling. They die from stopping falling."
- koenigdavidmj 13y ago
  Also, 'nobody ever died on a motorcycle'.
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago
  Not true: plenty of people have died of a heart attack on the way down before they ever hit the ground.